The noted legal scholar Roscoe Pound once said that “the social order rests upon the stability and predictability of conduct, of which keeping promises is a large item.” Contract law deals with, among other things, the formation and keeping of promises. A promise is a person’s assurance that the person will or will not do something. Like other types of law, contract law reflects our social values, interests, and expectations at a given point in time.
Sources of Contract Law—The common law governs all contracts except when it has been modified or replaced by statutory law, such as the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), or by administrative agency regulations. Contracts relating to services, real estate, employment, and insurance, for example, generally are governed by the common law of contracts. Contracts for the sale and lease of goods, however, are governed by the UCC—to the extent that the UCC has modified general conduct law.
The Function of Contract Law—No aspect of modern life is entirely free of contractual relationship. Even ordinary consumers in their daily activities acquire rights and obligations based on contract law. Contract law deals with, among other things, the formation and enforcement of agreements between parties (in Latin, pacta sunt servanda—“agreements shall be kept”). By supplying procedures for enforcing private contractual agreements, contract law provides an essential condition for the existence of a market economy. Contract law is necessary to ensure compliance with a promise or to entitle the innocent party to some form of relief.
Definition of a Contract—A contract is “a promise or set of promises for the breach of which the law gives a remedy, or the performance of which the law in some way recognizes as a duty. Put simply, a contract is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties who agree to perform or to refrain form performing some act now or in the future. If the contractual